Down With The Sickness
by KariinSilvermoon
Summary: Left behind in the chaos, a newly mutated hunter has to deal with the effects of losing everything she had. Reunited with some friends, also infected, and knowing that she isn't the only one who retained an ounce of her sanity helps her come to the conclusion that life can still exist even in the chaos. But a lot of strange things can happen when you're down with the sickness.


Down with the Sickness

Chapter One: Infected

I don't remember much of the sickness now, just small flashes of memory that persist to slip further away every time I try to grab onto one. I can barely even remember my name and the names of things I have been seeing since I was born. I was left behind by my family after I passed the Flu to my mother, who died from it. They saw me as a blight that should die of its own accord. They didn't know me very well though. I was a fighter and I'd be damned if I let myself die from this illness.

I listened to the rumble of my step-fathers truck drive away, leaving me to die. My room was dark and I was fairly sure that my step-father, Patrick, had loaded up all of the non-perishable food to take with him and my step-brother. At least Josh had actually not wanted to leave me behind.

I started coughing, again, bringing up coppery blood and having to lean over the edge of my bed to vomit in a five-gallon bucket that had been left there. The coughing was the worst. You coughed until you could barely breathe and even pass out sometimes. I would cough until threw up and then cough some more making myself pass out from lack of oxygen.

My dreams were strange. Hauntingly twisted by the daze my high fever had put me in my dreams had me watching a group of creatures tearing apart other people. The creatures were hideous, covered in boils and disgusting lesions. They growled and screamed all while clawing and biting at the living and themselves, seeming oblivious to the pain they caused. I watched in horror as they devoured the chaos they made and then ran off, stumbling along the way, to go wreak more havoc, leaving broken, mangled bodies in their wake.

I woke up and threw up again, being disgusted. What were those things? I shuddered and started to cough unproductively. I tasted copper in my mouth as I kept hacking. The blood ran down my chin as I coughed so hard I couldn't breathe. Gasping for breath was something I was used to by now, but this was different. I literally could not inhale at all. Is this how it happened? Death by suffocation?

I had to lay my head down as my vision went spotty. That cliché moment that happens in movies, life flashing before your eyes, never came. I wasn't really sure if it was because of my lack of oxygen or because my vision was already going dark. I think I would have preferred death, if I were to have known what was to come.

CEDA had no clue what they were doing. The disease had gotten out of control. The infected people were turning rabid and would break their own bones to get out of their restraints. They tried to make a cure. They did. Before they could make any success though, something bizarre happened. It happened in one of the labs. A doctor, who was mutating the sickness against orders, was infected. They contained him, but after several days it was apparent the infection wasn't going according to the normal staging.

What would have turned the doctor into a mindless, unintelligent creature turned him into something else. Something stronger. The infected doctor became the first 'special' infected. But it wasn't to last. With the improper treatment the virus slowly over took his system. Even though he was dead, the virus was very much alive. By cremating the body, the virus was sent airborne to the rural areas nearby. Spreading inwards to towns and then cities, the virus had much time to mutate further, on its own, and become stronger. The common virus was spread nearly the exact same way.

The sickness killed most that it came into contact with. About 3 out of 5 people died from it. But those few who still lived continued to gradually get sicker and sicker. They tried to evacuate, but it didn't work. The sick came to get away from the sicker and the rare immune person was too distracted about surviving than coming to get saved. Finally, when the sickness became what we know now as the Green Flu, it was too late. Doctors had no cure, the military wouldn't take action against their own people, and the government was under attack from angry civilians. It was literally the end.

I was surprised when I woke up again. My head felt clear, my nose was no longer stuffy, and I wasn't wheezing or coughing. I yawned, feeling very refreshed for once, and tried to sit up. I did so with ease and then threw my legs out from under my covers to sit up. See what did I tell you? I was a fighter. Wait. I peered down at my feet, the only thing showing from under the loose pajama's I was dressed in. Were my feet…? Grey? I looked at my hands and then shrieked.

Thick, sharp ivory claws curved outwards from the tips of my fingers and my skin was indeed a dark charcoal grey color. I quickly started to shred the rest of my clothes off, my hand-eye coordination and dexterity failing me. Without clothing it was easier to see what had changed and what hadn't. Like my fingers, my toes were also clawed, not quite as long, but still clawed. It was dark and yet I could see like it was day. I could smell the stale musty air of the house, which had probably been abandoned for a time, and my entire body was covered in the same dark grey skin.

I whined in terror. What had I become? I looked toward my mirror and was even more frightened. My parted mouth revealed sharp fangs and teeth meant for ripping and tearing, and my eyes were different colored. My normal steel-grey eyes were now a lighter shade of grey then my skin, but the sclera's were a deep pitch black color. My once wavy auburn hair was now pin-straight, thin and falling out, and a dark crimson color. My body was much more muscled than before and my breasts were gone, making me look like a male athlete, which I can assure you I was not before all this happened.

I whimpered and looked around. Outside my curtains, the world was dark and yet I could still see. I struggled to open my closet doors and get dressed, managing to get a shirt and jacket on after tearing and ripping up at least eight of them with my new claws. Pants were easier, the fabric wasn't as flimsy and a pair of black jeans went on with my black shirt and black hoodie. I also managed to pull on my steel toed boots that I always kept tied. Thank goodness I had some tough shoes.

The door was harder because of my loss of dexterity and I ended up just clawing the door knob off and pushing the door open with my shoulder. As soon as the door opened I was attacked with the scent of rot and disease. In my sleep, the windows had been broken, the whole house raided, and now several strange looking creatures were littered around the living room, dead. They were hideously disfigured with numerous tumors and boils. I peered closer. They looked almost like classic zombies would. Rotting corpses come to life again.

I left the house after realizing there was nothing there and looked around. My home was in the middle of the wide open country. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the people immune to the disease and fled out of here, but I was curious. How many stubborn people would have stayed behind to live amongst the chaos? I walked slowly, my hood covering up my face, sheltering my sensitive eyes from the bright light of the sun. The streets were empty, which was different. Random cars were abandoned haphazardly and more of the nasty rotting bodies lay strewn about the road. It was hard to tell which bodies were infected people and which ones weren't, but both kinds stunk to high heaven.

I moved away from the road, the concentration of bodies was making me nauseous thanks to my now wondrous smelling ability. The forests had less of a stench to it, from the lack of dead bodies I supposed, and it was fairly peaceful. I knew these woods well and going the direction towards town was something I used to do constantly. The walk was much easier and faster than I remembered. I supposed my newly muscled legs had to be thanked for that. Maybe this virus wasn't so bad.

When I got to the town I looked around and scrunched my nose up. This place smelled worse than the road by my house and I growled as a few of the infected zombieifed people got to close to me. Seeming to sense the threat, most of them got the idea and moved away, but one stood out amongst the rest. I peered at the small giggling person and growled again. It looked up at me and I backed away. The thing had wild eyes and the deranged giggling was creepy, making ice trail down my spine.

Upon hearing footsteps I turned and growled at the sound, surprised to see a young teenager who would have been my age. I would have went up to her and tried to play nice, if she wasn't pointing a gun straight at me. I stared at her and she stared back as the giggle-box suddenly sprang like a coiled snake at its prey and latched itself onto the girls face, making her stumble and scream. The screaming of the girl caught the attention of a small group of the normal looking infected and they all rushed her.

With wide eyes I took off on all fours, not even realizing it, and jumped up onto a dumpster and then onto the adjacent building. The bloodbath was terrible. Why did that just happen? Was this happening everywhere? I stayed on all fours and kept jumping across buildings, finding it easier and faster than just walking. I made my way towards the bigger section of down, where the small shops turned into taller, bigger buildings and offices. I jumped my way up onto the tallest building, which happened to be the post office where my mom used to work, and looked around the town. Everything looked different. The downtown square was a rotting bloodbath of bodies. The First Baptist Church had its windows broken and the masses of zombieifed people went in and out of it. Spattered blood was all over the streets and the abandoned cars. Stray animals, which used to be quite common in the downtown section, were all gone. Not even a pigeon was left on the streets anymore.

I couldn't believe the sight of where I used to work and play. Me, this town, these people, probably the whole world. We were all infected.


End file.
